By Ike Brooker
Facebook has been refining its brand advertising regulations as of late. This has naturally created some uproar. I mean, this is the internet; if there’s a comment to be made, it will be made.

First let’s do the requisite visual link to Shortstack’s 20% guidelines. That is basically what you are working with for text.

Now let’s now talk about why. Facebook is trying to create a visually driven platform. Much like a billboard, economy and brevity of text are a must. An effective billboard looks something like this:

Notice that the text and logo are roughly 20% of the available space. The rest is populated by a visual. This is very effective for attracting eyeballs to a post.

The heavy lifting of the copy should, in theory, be done in the accompanying text of the post. Trying to put every message in the image leaves you with something that looks like this:

Who knows what that ad wants the viewer to do? We do know that it has a money fan (OLD MEME ALERT), and that they speak Spanish.

Though it seems a bit draconian to force everyone to follow good design rules, it really does make sense from a marketing standpoint. The visual should do the communication, not loud text and 20% off offers.